ABSTRACT
His father, John Thoresby, a Leeds cloth merchant, had served in the Parliamentary army under Fairfax and was one of the original proprietors of the Presbyterian Mill Hill meeting-house in Leeds, built in 1672 as a result of Charles II’s Declaration of Indulgence. Ralph Thoresby inherited his antiquarian interests and much of his ‘museum of rarities’ from his father, who in 1673 had acquired an important collection of coins and medals from Fairfax’s executors for £30, as part of the purchase of Fairfax’s library with two nonconformist friends for £182.6 Nevertheless, Thoresby senior was already an important antiquarian and collector corresponding with local antiquarians about his collection of coins. They included Dr Nathaniel Johnson, the historian of Pontefract, whom Thoresby also consulted about his family’s health; John Hopkinson, of Lofthouse, near Leeds, from whom he borrowed books; the York antiquarian Christopher Hildiard, with whom he exchanged coins; and Martin Lister of York, who in 1675 visited Thoresby to see his coin collection.7
